The battery metal may be on the nose with investors, but analysts at Roskill still expect the cobalt market will get its “fair share of headlines” in 2019.

 

Jervois Mining and M2 Cobalt to merge

Late yesterday, advanced cobalt explorer Jervois Mining (ASX:JRV) told investors it was pursuing a friendly takeover of Canadian listed, Africa-focused M2 Cobalt.

The merged entity will be primarily listed on the ASX, but an application for a second listing on the TSXV could “provide access to both the Australian and Canadian mining capital markets”.

Jervois is close to completing a pre-feasibility study on its Nico Young project in New South Wales which the explorer reckons will be one of Australia’s largest cobalt nickel operations — if it gets built.

M2 Cobalt own a number of early stage cobalt projects in the “safe” African jurisdiction of Uganda.

Read: Kidnapping, murder, revolution: the reality Aussie miners face in conflict zones

In fact, one of its projects surrounds the mothballed Kilembe copper-cobalt mine, which is currently owned by the Ugandan government.

Kilembe was operated for about 20 years, sold to the Ugandan government in 1975 and never reopened.

A Chinese-backed company did give a try but the government cancelled the deal last year after no progress was made.

Investors weren’t overly thrilled by the tie-up announcement, so far sending the Jervois share price down from 28c to 25.5c.

First Cobalt hits mineralisation in “barren” zone

In Idaho, First Cobalt (ASX:FCC) drilling has deepened the cobalt-copper mineralisation by about 100m in the central area of its Iron Creek project resource.

The explorer says this is important for three reasons.

One: other mining companies had interpreted this area as barren, but obviously this latest drilling suggests otherwise.

Two: the drilling confirmed good continuity of mineralisation in the central portion of the resource, both at depth and between the No Name and Waite mineralised zones.

And three: cobalt hits outside of these two zones “suggest further tonnage potential” beyond the boundaries of the Iron Creek maiden resource estimate (which is currently 46.2 million pounds of cobalt and 176.2 million pounds of copper).

The First Cobalt share price – which has been absolutely punished over the past year — was up about 6 per cent to 17.5c on the news.

The First Cobalt share price has plummeted over the past year.
The First Cobalt share price has plummeted over the past year.

New World Cobalt zeros in on Idaho targets

New World Cobalt (ASX: NWC) reckons it has defined “several very strong anomalies” at its Colson cobalt‐copper project in the US from geophysical surveys completed last year.

Two of these anomalies will be targeted during the company’s next drilling program, New World Cobalt managing director Mike Haynes says.

READ: High Voltage — All The News Driving battery Metals Stocks

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